Antebellum South - Image vs. Reality

The South was not a monolithic society. The region included 11 states, tidewater, piedmont, urban, creole, cajun. Economic power by 1850 was shifting from the upper to lower South.

Cotton was not the only crop. Cotton was the largest staple export that made up 67% of the total national export, produced in a cotton-growing belt that moved southwestward as soil was exhausted. The South "grew" but it did not develop or modernize. More acreage was used for corn. Other crops included tobacco, sugar, rice, indigo. Livestock included 60% of the nation's hogs and 90% of the mules that were more common than horses. Many farms had vegetable gardens, but not orderly. Garbage thrown out randomly, pigs rooted in piles and puddles.

Most were not slaveowners. The population of 8 million whites included "plain folk," yeoman farmers, apprentices, craftsmen. Only .1% of the population (3000 families) owned more tha 100 slaves, 6.6% owned 10-99 slaves, 17.2% owned 1-9 slaves, 76.1% owned no slaves. Also important were lawyers, doctors, editors like James DeBow, brokers and factors.

Most did not own plantations. "Yeoman farmers were the solid backbone of the South" according to Frank Owsley, owning less than 100 acres.

Most did not live in large mansions. More typical were small, dark, two-room cabins that did not have great staircases. Frederick Law Olmstead in 1854 found no "thermometer, book of Shakespeare, piano, sheet of music, good reading lamp, engraving, work of art." Social activities did not focus on great barbecues but rather the county fair, militia muster, political rally, court session, quilting bee, corn-shucking.

A "herrenvolk democracy" of racial superiority was the greatest unifying force among southern whites. Although 500,000 lived in poverty as "poor white trash, crackers, clay-eaters" they shared with the aristocracy a desire to preserve racial superiority and defended slavery as a "positive good."

The South was more aristocratic than democratic. Although small in number, the plantation-owning aristocracy had great influence, through its "cavalier" code of chivalry and honor. However, it was not genteel and leisured, but rather a working aristocracy of competitive businessmen. The code of honor institutionalized violence and gambling and boasting. It was patriarchal and hierarchical and traditional in its identification with the revolutionary Founding Fathers. Some were from established families who "always marry their cousins" but many were new arrivals due to land speculation or commerce.

Women were more subordinate than in the North. They lived on isolated farms, were uneducated, worked at spinning, weaving, supervising slaves. They were idealized in the cavalier code, but the "right to protection involves the obligation to obey" according to George Fitzhugh. Some rebeled but most defended their special status.

Masters were not kindly. Slave mistreatment was common and a primary cause of broken families, runaways, whippings, malnutrition. Slave clothing was oftern in tatters. Slavery was a labor system for profit, with men, women and children put to work.

Slaves were not content. The "sambo" behavior of some slaves was a facade for whites that concealed a pattern of everyday resistance that included sabotage, broken tools, work slowdowns. Rebellions included the 1800 Gabriel Prosser revolt in Richmond, the 1822 Denmark Vesey revolt in Charleston, the 1831 Nat Turner revolt in Virginia. Harriet Tubman escaped from slavery in Maryland and became a "conductor" on the Underground Railroad.

Slaves were not only field hands. 75% of the 4 million black slaves were in agriculture in 1850 (55% in cotton) and 15% were domestics and 10% were in mining, lumber, industry such as the Tredegar Iron Works in Richmond. There were 250,000 free blacks in the South. Elizabeth Keckley bought her freedom by sewing and became a companion to Mary Todd Lincoln in the White House.

Carnes, Mark C., ed. Past Imperfect: History according to the Movies. New York : Holt, 1995. NOTES: 304 p. : ill. ; 26 cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. SUBJECT Historical films -- History and criticism. Motion pictures and history. CALL #: CL Book Stacks 791.43658 P291 1995 - has a short essay on the film

Wead, George. Gone with the Wind, a Legend Endures: an Exhibition Catalogue. Austin, Texas: Humanities Research Center, The University of Texas at Austin, 1983. NOTES: 121 p. : ill. (some col.), ports. ; 26 cm. Since 1981, the "Gone with the wind ..." exhibit has been housed in the Humanities Research Center at the University of Texas at Austin. It is the largest exhibit in the history of the Center [1983].--G. Wead. SUBJECTS: Selznick, David O., 1902-1965. Gone with the wind. Motion picture. CALL #: PN1997.G59 W43 1983

Wyatt-Brown, Bertram. Southern Honor: Ethics and Behavior in the Old South. New York: Oxford University Press, 1982. NOTES: 597 p ; Includes bibliographical references and index. SUBJECTS: Honor. Southern States -- Civilization. Southern States -- Moral conditions. CALL #: 975 W976s DESCRIPTION: the South was not a peaceful society.